Chapter 502: Thousand Years of Brilliant Works

This snow was undoubtedly a blessing for the Tang army.

For the Turks and the Han army, it could not be considered friendly.

In full view of the crowd, Jili Khan walked up to the Crown Prince of the Tang Dynasty and performed a great ceremony of paying homage to him to show his submission.

Li Er looked at Jili Khan kneeling in front of him and laughed out loud.

"Ha ha ha ha"

He won.

The Turks, a northern overlord that rose in the pre-Wei period, have always been a major threat to the Central Plains dynasty in the north.

Just like the Huns to the Han Dynasty and the Xianbei to the Wei Dynasty.

Now, in this great war, he directly captured the Turkic Khan. This is not a small country, this is the overlord of the north, the Lord of the Gray Wolf on the grassland.

The golden wolf-head banner is the master of the thousands of miles of territory stretching from Liaodong in the east to the countries in the Western Regions in the west.

But now, he is both his prisoner and guest of honor.

When the various tribes surrounded and captured the big fish, Jilihe Khan, Li Er was surprised and sent his generals to disperse and expand the results of the battle.

For the commanders of each army, there is always a sentence in their merit book: "followed the prince in the battle of Gaoping, besieged Jili, and captured Chang'an alive."
That’s enough. Next, how many war horses, armors, weapons, and supplies can be seized, and how many enemy soldiers can be captured will all be counted as military merits.

The right army brigade attacked again, and this time Zhao Da's target was the Han army.

Although Yang Kan's Han army broke away from the Turkic group and avoided being engulfed, their marching speed was still not fast enough.

The more than 10,000 Han soldiers cleared a path in front, which allowed the Tang army to even ride horses when chasing the Han army from behind.

Seeing that the Tang army was catching up, Yang Kan, as the main general, stayed behind to cover the rear and led 800 elite soldiers to dismount and fight on foot.

Eight hundred men formed a battle formation on the road. Although the Tang army could ride over, they did not dare to ride directly into the tightly formed Han army.

The Tang army also quickly dismounted and formed a battle formation, then launched an attack on the Han army.

The Han army led by Yang Kan were elite cavalry drawn by Liu Xuanji from the border troops of Jizhou, Daizhou, Youzhou, Bingzhou, and the imperial guards. Although their composition was complex, they were not constrained by other senior generals and were well-trained elite troops. Therefore, after a little training, Yang Kan was able to control the team and use it as if it were his own arm.

After marching thousands of miles, they had already forged the spirit and energy that only the strongest army in the world could possess.

Although they were in a difficult situation at the moment, the Han army was focused when they saw their commander Yang Kan standing in the formation with them, fighting on foot with long spears in hand.

While the Tang army was chasing the Turks for half a day, they underestimated the enemy and suffered heavy losses in the first wave of attack.

The Han army's morale grew stronger and they repelled several attacks from the Tang army in succession.

Even Zhao Da, who was in charge of the right army, arrived at the front and led the assault personally, but he was unable to break through the formation of less than a thousand Han troops.

Fortunately, Zhao Da is not a stubborn person. He will not chew the hard bones. If there is meat over there, why not eat it?

So he left scouts behind to follow the Han army and track them, while he turned around and led the right army to continue pursuing the Turks who had completely lost their organization.

After all, even the Khan was captured alive by the Tang army, and the rest of the people had no choice but to either flee or surrender.

However, heavy snow made escape a luxury. Countless Turkic soldiers were intercepted by the Tang army and had to surrender because they were reluctant to leave their horses, cattle and sheep.

The Tang army continued to expand its victory.

Li Er ordered his men to set up a big tent directly in the snow, and sat in the tent with the Turkic Khan, waiting for the continuous battle reports from various tribes.

Jili Khan sat dejectedly aside. At this moment, even the most beautiful woman, the most delicious food, and the most precious treasure could not arouse his interest.

Because he had just lost a great country with thousands of miles of territory.

Jili Khan understood that the Turks would be severely damaged by this and even face the risk of being replaced by other tribes, but no matter what, the Turks would have a new Khan.

Even his nephew, Shibi Khan's son Tuli Khan, could directly take over his position as the Great Khan and become the leader of the Turks.
Li Er drank steaming hot milk tea and listened to the gains and reports of various troops. It was not until nightfall that Li Er ordered the whole army to withdraw.

After receiving the military order, the commanders of each unit drove the prisoners, horses, cattle and sheep, and carried the captured supplies back to the camp in Gaoping.

And for dozens of miles north of Gaoping, the road was full of Turks, some dead and some alive, as well as their discarded weapons, baggage and various supplies.

Zhao Da came to Li Er and reported the movements of the Han army, and also explained that he had failed to defeat the Han army.

Li Er laughed and consoled him, "Isn't today's victory great enough? General, your achievements in this battle are enough to rival those of Wei and Huo. Hahaha, why bother?"

"I thank you, Your Highness the Crown Prince."

Li Er was very happy, with a rosy face. At this moment, he felt that his physical condition was the best in recent years. Now he could lead the cavalry to gallop for hundreds of miles without any problem.

In the Battle of Gaoping, the Tang army achieved a great feat that was no less than the demise of the Western Wei.

Everyone was satisfied, but after a big victory, there were still many things the winners needed to do to fully digest the fruits of victory.

The first thing to do was to accommodate up to 40,000 captives, as well as 200,000 horses, hundreds of thousands of cattle and sheep, thousands of chariots, about 100,000 pieces of captured iron and leather armor, and countless swords, bows, arrows, and spears of various kinds.

In this battle, the Tang army beheaded as many as 50,000 people and was rewarded with merit. Some people proposed to build a Jingguan to commemorate the achievement and intimidate the Hu people in the northwest.

But Li Er refused, and made it clear that the Tang Dynasty was the master of the world, and the Turks would also be the people of the Tang Dynasty in the future. He then ordered the construction of Xinghua Temple outside Gaoping City, at the foot of Liupan Mountain, and wrote an article and erected a monument for the Tang soldiers who died in the battle. At the same time, he ordered the army to use the prisoners to collect the remains of the enemy.

After dealing with these things, Li Er suddenly felt extremely tired, as if his energy and spirit had been drained away all of a sudden. Li Er asked his confidant Fang Qiao: "What day is today?"

Fang Qiao was stunned for a moment, thinking that this year should be the first day of the first lunar month of the eleventh year of Wude. But then he felt that something was wrong.

Xue Shou at the side said: "This year is the first day of the first lunar month in the first year of Zhenguan."

Li Er smiled when he heard this, but didn't say anything.

The imperial edict to change the reign title had been issued long ago, and the new year name was Zhenguan. But the abdication ceremony could not be held as scheduled. Because of the war, Fang Qiao had doubts.

But Xue Shou felt that since the edict to change the reign title had already been issued, this year would already be the first year of Zhenguan regardless of whether the abdication took place or not.

This was the reign title discussed by Li Er and the eighteen scholars, and it also embodied the future of the Tang Dynasty that they wanted to see.

After Li Er finished handling military affairs and making personnel arrangements, he fell ill. The doctor examined him and said it was just a cold, but Dou Gui, Chai Rong and the officials in the Eastern Palace were all very worried.

Li Er asked his uncle Dou Gui and brother-in-law Chai Rong to handle military affairs on his behalf, and the celebration banquet that was supposed to be held was delayed for several days.

A few days later, Li Erqiang managed to get up and convened a meeting of all the generals in the camp to celebrate the victory of the Battle of Gaoping.

All the soldiers in the army raised their glasses and drank together to celebrate this great achievement that would be celebrated for generations to come.

Although Li Er looked pale, he was still drinking and having fun with the generals. At the climax of the banquet, the military band suddenly played a majestic military music.

This military music is majestic and passionate, and when it hears it it feels like thousands of troops are fighting fiercely.

Almost everyone clapped their hands in response.

This military music is called "Three Kings Breaking the Formation Music" and was composed by Jin Wang Li Xuanqing himself to commemorate the battles of Yingchuan and Jinyang in which the three brothers fought side by side to defeat the enemy.

Li Er naturally knew the origin of this song, and at this moment this heart-stirring military music just fits his mood.

It reminded him of the scene where the three brothers fought side by side.

In Yingchuan, in Luoyang, and in Jinyang.

When three people stand together, who in the world can be their opponent?

If Aye wasn't so foolish and greedy for power, if the eldest brother was still alive, if he hadn't been at loggerheads with Sanlang in recent years, if he hadn't been secretly competing with Silang, then this world would have belonged to their Li family long ago, right?
However, it’s not too late to figure it out now.

(End of this chapter)